Lady Jackets unload on West Lincoln

By By Marty Stamper / EMG sports assistant
Oct. 22, 2003
UNION A year ago, Union eliminated West Lincoln in the Class 1A South State slow-pitch championship series with a strong hitting attack.
In Tuesday's South half rematch at Laird Park, the Lady Jackets used their defense, good pitching, and some timely hits to sweep the Lady Bears 10-0, 6-3.
Union, 25-10, advances to Saturday's 1A state finals at the V.A. Fields in Jackson against Ingomar, 32-7, in a rematch of last year's title series which Ingomar took in three games. The Lady Falcons swept Houlka 12-10, 17-7 for the North half title Tuesday.
West Lincoln finishes 28-11. The Lady Bears batted just .220, going 11-for-50, while Union was 25-for-63 (.397).
In the opener, Madison Brantley (20-9) retired the first 13 batters she faced before losing pitcher Brittani Phillips and April Kennedy had one-out singles in the top of the fifth inning. Union got out of the inning unscathed and went on to win in six innings.
West Lincoln's only other hit was a sixth-inning infield hit by Emily Richardson.
Union put up three runs in the first inning with Loren Kennedy scoring on a fielder's choice by Morgan Milling, Lauren White belting a solo homer to right field, and courtesy runner Brittany Germany scoring on a single by Beth Crotwell.
The Lady Jackets broke the game open with five runs in the third. Two runs scored on Lady Bear errors with Amechia Hickmon and Chasity Yates having RBI singles. Crotwell threw in a sacrifice fly.
Morgan Breland's RBI single in the sixth closed out the first game.
In the second game, Union scored twice in the top of the first inning on RBI singles from Brantley and Tiffany Thomas.
West Lincoln had its only productive inning of the day in the bottom of the first, getting five hits and scoring all three of its runs. Phillips and Holli Smith had RBI singles with April Kennedy adding a sacrifice fly.
Union drew even in the top of the second on a sacrifice fly by Loren Kennedy that plated Hickmon.
Thomas had an RBI double in the third with Crotwell's triple giving Union a 5-3 lead.
The Lady Jackets added an insurance run in the sixth as White led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Thomas.
Brantley (21-9) retired 12 batters in a row from the second into the sixth inning.
Lyndsay Franklin had two singles for West Lincoln. Thomas and Crotwell both had two of Union's nine hits.
A tough regular season paid off for Union. Of the Lady Jackets' 10 losses, three were to second-ranked Neshoba Central, two were to third-ranked and Class 3A state finalist West Lauderdale, one was to Class 3A South State semifinalist Newton County, one was to Class 4A South State finalist Petal, and another was to Class 2A state finalist Clarkdale.